Mothercare: live webchat with CEO Simon Calver, TODAY, Friday 22 March, 11am

[RachelMumsnet]

Simon Calver, Mothercare CEO is joining us for a webchat on Friday 22nd March between 11am and midday. After reading a recent rather, erm, robust MN thread about Mothercare, Simon really wants to hear more of your thoughts and feedback. This is your opportunity to contribute your ideas to help shape the future of Mothercare.

Simon says, 'I'm really looking forward to hearing from many of you in the Mumsnet community and to listen to your thoughts and opinions on a range of subjects. We are working hard to address many of the issues you've raised in the past so I hope you'll join me on Friday when I can update you on what we've done so far and some of our ideas for the future.'

Before joining Mothercare Simon was CEO at LoveFilm and has also worked with Unilever and PepsiCo. He is also a father of two very young children.

Simon looks forward to hearing your thoughts about Mothercare between 11 and 12 on Friday. if you're unable to join us on the day, please post your question in advance on this thread.

[ShrewveTuesday]

OK, but why not just type "parents" and save me the bother?

[Iamcountingto3]

An 'end of webchat' type question: what's the one thing you have planned that you think will most impress those of us who've moved away from Mothercare...?

[SimonCalver]

@ShrewveTuesday

What do you think your USP is?

I think our USP has to be being the place that cares most for parents. Being a specialist, we need to ensure we cater for every mum's (and dad's) needs. If we offer the best service and the best products, we will have great success and give back to all of our loyal customers.

[WomanlyWoman]

Would love to see consideration given to gender stereotypes across your range eg girls love dinosaurs and outer space and many boys love to play with dolls and pushchairs, what do you think?

[ShrewveTuesday]

There really is a contradiction inherent in being a specialist and trying to cater for every parent's needs. It needs a rethink.

[cakelover75]

Hello, I may be too late to this but I wanted to add that I adore the Little Bird range of clothes. It's so refreshing to have a line of clothes which is appropriate for children and not as expensive as Next or Gap.

[Iamcountingto3]

Oh, and as one with a dd who refused to wear ANY 'girls' clothes from about 3 years old, or even enter a girls section in clothing shops, & a softly spoken, emotional ds, yy to all the other comments about over-genderisation.

[Grannycas]

Be brave Mothercare and show the rest of childcare that you really do CARE. Take notice of advise from healthcare professionals, educationalists parents and GRANNIES make the 'must have' buggies, prams and pushchairs facing the pusher...I dare you to!

[SimonCalver]

@LaVitaBellissima

Hi Simon,

I have only used mothercare twice in the last 2 years, as I always found our local John Lewis (Kingston) had a much better range, and was a lot cleaner. I have spent an absolute fortune in there.
Most new mums are very paranoid about dirt, germs & sterilising everything, all the potties, baths etc in your Bentals Kingston branch were filthy and the maternity wear was unflattering and badly fitting. I walked straight out. I have to say the Kew branch is better with the nursing area, and the staff in Hounslow were really helpful.

I ended up buying my maternity wear in a Blooming marvellous closing down sale, they were a great brand which ironically Mothercare bought out. Are you still selling it under that name?

Have to say you should be sending Gazzalw & jbakedbean a nice gift for their brilliant advice!

We still sell Blooming Marvellous and we are extending the range - you will see new clothes in store at the moment. If there are any stores that aren't up to the clean standard you expect, please let me know and we'll get straight onto it.

[SimonCalver]

@tumblebug

Hi, I shop at Mothercare quite a bit and really like a lot of your products - some of the clothes, ELC, some cuddly toys that I saw recently.

The baby change/ feeding facilities and toilets are great. Last week there were nappies and wipes in there - really useful.

Some things really frustrate me though, and put me off shopping there.

At my previous local store (a bigger store) it often felt like there were a lot of staff standing around doing not very much, but trying to get someone to help was really difficult - I would often wander round the buggy or car seat section, not be able to find anyone to help or advise, and walk out again. Very helpful staff at my new local store though.

Price labelling can be poor - still rely on sticky price labels, I often can't find a price on an item or on the shelf.

I took an item to pay (at full price), and found out there was a substantial price reduction - I very nearly didn't buy it as I felt it was too expensive, but was very happy at the price I paid in the end. Surely if price is reduced to encourage sales, this should be clearly marked/ advertised?

Thank you for your feedback on our facilities. We are looking at changing the way we price to make it much clearer, so we completely echo your comments.

[ShrewveTuesday]

I guess he's gone now. Disappointed (though not surprised) to hear such gendered messages - from the Mum's Space (shudder) to the house taking on a pink hue since his DD was born, to the insistent mums mums mums message, to the "People want pink and blue. You lot are the minority" subtext...

[SimonCalver]

@cakelover75

Hello, I may be too late to this but I wanted to add that I adore the Little Bird range of clothes. It's so refreshing to have a line of clothes which is appropriate for children and not as expensive as Next or Gap.

Thanks for your comments. There is actually a new range of Little Bird in store at the moment, and we're continuing to expand this range.

[ComradeJing]

Just quickly Simon, I had brilliant service at the Shanghai store a few months back. Someone really knowledgeable spoke to me about pushchairs and I was very impressed.

In contrast my last visit to a uk store was 5 days before Christmas 2011. There was NO winter clothing in the store that wasn't on sale (so nothing in DDs size). Everything was spring stock and useless for the weather. I walked out without buying.

[down2earthwithabump]

Hello Simon.
How encouraging to see a CEO genuinely interested in the customers.

Can I just say, I love Mothercare, though I share in the disappointments of some of the other posters. DD is 5.

Positives:
We have loved going to a big car-park branch that has ELC and a Clarks shoeshop in it. To have Clarks in the back of a branch has been brilliant, as there is more space and focus on the fitting of children's shoes without the chaos and distraction of grown up shoes. I think this is great.

It is handy to have a toy section to cater for several early year ages. But I agree with less gender specific toys.

I love the baby-change/toilets/feeding facilities, they often need freshening up but it is a great help and makes shopping with little ones much easier.

I've found some great clothes for my little one. I loved the Humpfrey Elephant range for gift/special clothing.

Pixiphoto were in one branch, and that was good for affordable studio pictures as DD grew up.

Negatives (with still some positives):

A different and slightly closer car-park branch halved in size in the last few years and this made it impossible to get buggies around and even customers without buggies would get trapped by the customers with buggies!!

Clothing, although I have had some lovely bright and cheerful clothing for DD in Mothercare, lots can seem cheep in fabric/sewing quality, and I really dislike the Myleene Klass range, so much black in the range, and despite having gone through some gothic years I don't like black on any children as it zapps the colour from their skin. I like Myleene Klass, but also think her range is a bit mini-adult. But then people's tastes are different, and if it sells...

I do think Mothercare as a brand does need to be stronger. It used to be. I grew up in the 70s/80s desperate for my mum to buy me and her matching sailors dresses from the store , but she never did it! We have had some of my original (more classic styled) children's clothes for my DD.

Way back when I got maternity clothing from Mothercare I found it ill-fitting, and not very flattering. I ended up just not shopping for it in Mothercare.

I had similar trouble with car-seats. As we had an old car it was difficult to find a seat that fitted. The staff member serving us did not appear to have adequate training and appeared confused. So we went elsewhere for that too, until the most recent booster and back, where we got the customer service in a different store, but found the better price at Mothercare, though had to then go to a different branch to find one in stock.

When little one was small I got the customer card (credit) but as I hadn't used it recently it just expired without any notification through the post, or a replacement card, so I would need to reapply? if I had wanted to set it up again.

I also tried on-line with some larger products a few years ago, but the website did not seem to tally with in-store products, was hard to navigate, the search was not very reliable, and the time from ordering to delivery seemed very long and without much guidance as to the ETA or even day of arrival. This may all have improved since I tried this, but it was such a slow process I didn't do it again.

QUESTION
So please can we have Mothercare back as a strong brand, with polite well-trained staff, with well-stocked shelves for all ages, of quality products over a range of prices and ages, with lovely cafe, shoes with fitting service, toys etc with great on-line service and a better loyalty/credit card system?

[SimonCalver]

@Iamcountingto3

An 'end of webchat' type question: what's the one thing you have planned that you think will most impress those of us who've moved away from Mothercare...?

The most important thing for me is that you notice a difference with everything we're trying to do both on line and in-store. You are the ultimate judges of how much we're improving. Thanks for your feedback today.

[SimonCalver]

Thanks very much for your questions. I've really enjoyed the webchat today and i recognise - given your feedback - we have a lot to do. Thanks too for your support and loyalty, as i make the changes i need to.

I'd also like to invite you to join our Mothercare/Mumsnet panel so we can work together to improve Mothercare. We want to listen to mums at the start of their parenting journey and would like feedback on some of our new product arrivals and store designs/layouts. Please see this here for more information.

Have a great weekend, I'm looking forward to spending mine with Nieve and Monty (and Cathy)

Simon

[CATSNDOGS]

hi, many good points and some bad all mixed together, sorry!

i have a 2 year old and our buggy & accessories, one wardrobe&drawer thing, 0-12 months baby grows and about 1/5th of their toys are from mothercare.

ive found that its not my one stop shop as on some products, you are very competitive but others you are not.

i dont really shop anymore at mothercare as i now find the clothes dont give vfm compared to asda/ sainsbury or tesco.

our dc does still receive many gifts from elc and these are always great, so the toys in my opinion are great.

i regret to say that if i was going to look at toddler things, id now go to John lewis or argos, either for their prices or their service or ranges. i find that JL sometimes stock less run of the mill items and this is appealing.

mothercare is great and i will shop there if child number 2 comes along as the shoe section and toy sections are great. i wouldnt shop there for basics.

I would need to see more diverse or unique brands which i wouldn't mind spending more on, better prices on day to day items and a store that is more inspiring/ special. less smelly loo and feeding areas would also be great.

ive also had fantastic customer care from your store when the shop display furniture didn't match the item i was sent exactly and i applaud you for that. in the days when my child was under 12 months, 8/10 times i went in there was a lovely talkative happy assistant but a few other times there were other staff who were frankly miserable and didn't speak at all.

i also wish to raise the car seat issue like others on here. in scandinavian and other markets, rear facing is law until the children are much heavier and older and sorry for being inaccurate, possibly up to 4-6 years old. my H and i had to travel 200 miles round trip up to sheffield to buy our child a rear facing car seat which will take them up to 6 years old!! why are mothercare not promoting the rear facing for longer?

[gazzalw]

Very impressed with his approach generally. Good luck Simon! The Panel sounds an excellent idea, although we don't fit the brief with older children!

[CATSNDOGS]

oh yes, a cafe would be a brilliant idea too!

[Daisy299]

Looks like I missed this webchat but just wanted to echo the comments on pink and blue. We were given a Mothercare catalogue last week and were horrified at the amount of pink/blue clothing for babies. This is no use for people who don't want to know the gender pre-birth, or (like us) don't want to ram the pink/blue thing down our kids' throats.

We did actually go pram shopping at the Leeds Crown Point branch and wondered if it was closing down as it was like a big jumble sale and the store was half empty.

[cakelover75]

In addition, I've found that the staff in the Anniesland Glasgow branch as well as the Paisley store are always very friendly and knowledgeable.

Finally, you should seriously consider opening a store at either Braehead or Silverburn (Glasgow). There are no shops like yours at these places and in my view there is a real gap in the market for them.

[gazzalw]

the problem is that he will not be able to wave a magic wand, with an endless pot of money, and make the Mothercare brand instantly a lot more alluring and attractive. In an ideal world, yes but with the reality of the current economic climate, not.

Mind you I would say that parents, particularly first-time ones, will not skimp on the right products for their babes, and there is a baby-boom currently, so market conditions are ripe for exploiting if he can engender much needed, dynamic change.

I am sure that the customer care side of things is quite easy to address. Most staff are friendly and nice and generally do have the right attitude. If they don't, it probably says more about being demoralised and disincentivised over the years.

[Wigeon]

Well, he seemed pretty genuine - well done Simon.

No one asked the biscuit question!

Totally agree on the gender point - most recently have been frustrated there over slippers and many of the clothes, particularly baby clothes.

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

Yes...not convinced. He was VERY keen on saying "Mums" and wouldn't change though that's an old fashioned and sexist thing to say in terms of the discussion.

He also would not really acknowledge the pink and blue debate.

[gazzalw]

The problem is that for every parent who hates the gender divide there will be one (possibly a grandparent or family friend) who loves it. I guess if the tills are reflecting that blue and pink sell well they are not going to fix something that they don't perceive to be broken (if that makes sense?).